The Spotted Rail is a large rail of Central America, the Caribbean, and parts of South America.  It is relatively poorly known, and is curiously distributed in widely disjunct patches.  The species has proven to be a long distance vagrant, with a specimen record from southwestern Pennsylvania, USA.  Adults are quite dark overall, with a tapered, yellow bill with red spots at the base of the mandible, blackish head with red eye, black and brown upperparts, black underparts with white spotting, and pinkish legs.